The Assessment (2025)
Directed by: Fleur Fortune
Premise: In the near future, procreation is controlled by the state. A couple (Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel) are visited by a government assessor (Alicia Vikander) who will determine their readiness as parents.
What Works: The Assessment takes place in what appears to be the near future. Society has passed through a period of collapse and reproduction has been restricted to couples approved by the state. The filmmakers create a vivid world within a narrow scope. Most of The Assessment takes place in and around the couple’s home which is located on a rocky landscape near the seashore. The environs recall the settings of a lot of post-apocalyptic movies but the naturalism is convincing. The production design inside the house splits the difference between contemporary spaces and futuristic technology. The result is a credible look that sets the tone for the movie. The Assessment hinges upon the triangular relationship between the couple played by Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel and their assessor played by Alicia Vikander. Olsen and Patel are convincing as a couple. Their characters are initially introduced as a stable and loving couple but the pressure of the assessment reveals, and maybe creates, underlying distrust and resentment. Vikander’s character is introduced as a buttoned-down accountant type but without warning she begins acting as a small child, testing the couple’s parenting abilities. It’s a bizarre performance and Vikander throws herself into the role. The Assessment is also about our desire for experiences that are real and truthful, the way that desire is rooted in organic relationships, and the inadequacy of simulations to fulfill those needs. It’s a smart and provocative idea that is embedded into the story and has implications for life in the digital age.
What Doesn’t: The filmmakers lose their way in the end and The Assessment feels overlong especially in the last half hour. The film reaches its organic conclusion and then keeps going with a tagged-on coda that follows the three characters into the future. The picture feels proportioned wrong. Either this coda needed to be shorter or the climax of the film needed to occur earlier so that the aftermath of the titular assessment process had the space to play out. The Assessment is a bizarre movie in many respects. Its weirdness is largely to the movie’s credit but The Assessment requires the audience to go along with some outlandish choices and especially Vikander’s performance which is likely to be polarizing.
Disc extras: Available on Hulu.
Bottom Line: The Assessment is a candidate for a cult following. The movie is very strange but it’s also smart with some good performances and a thoughtful consideration of what is real and the value of authenticity. The Assessment is not for everybody and it goes awry in the ending but there’s an audience out there for this.
Episode: #1058 (July 27, 2025)